The Diablo III Beta: IGN's Readers Have Their Say

A few weeks ago, we put the word out for anyone playing the Diablo III beta to tell us what they think of it. We received hundreds of responses, via IGN comments, Facebook and email. A huge thank you to everyone who constructively contributed! Unfortunately, we obviously can't have everyone represented, so what follows is an attempt to accurately represent the most popular sentiments expressed, both positive and negative. We've broken it all down into broad categories so it should be easy to read through, too. Apologies if you put time and effort into your feedback and it wasn't included.

Does it live up to expectations?

"Playing through the beta several times felt like a warm hug from an old friend. I played through several times and it totally left me wanting more. So much so I ended up re-installing 2 and played through it again, (and surprisingly, 2 still holds up to this day). The beta has exceeded my expectations in every way; combat feels tight, skills (while laid out differently) felt rewarding and left me wanting to continue to level up (even though I probably should turned it off and went to bed on several occasions)." - Jason Sopkow

"As a huge fan of Diablo 2 (and Titan Quest) I find myself disappointed with Diablo 3... Blizzard is making this game like an MMO for what is called a "Blizzard fan," not a Diablo fan. There are no attributes, thus no permanent character modification, no permanence to your decision-making in building your character... Blizzard has been removing features to make the game simpler, blockier, and more "user-friendly." No town portals, health potions, identification scrolls, etc." - P1060

"Never played any of the other games in the series. But as a noob coming from WoW, it sparked my interest and was fun enough for me to max level all of the classes." - Shibssecky

"As someone who played both Diablo 1 & 2 for years once they were released, this is an unfair question. Does Diablo 3 live up to my inflated sense of nostalgia? Simply put… Yes. Yes it does. Granted I've only played the beta content but if the rest of the game plays out the way the beta does then my social life is doomed. To put it plainly, I've already purchased (& paid in full) for my copy of the Collectors Edition to pick up at the midnight release." - Jason Flaska

What do you like most about it?

"The best part being everything feels new, yet very "Diablo". It's all my Diablo 2 experiences all over again but with new and exciting content, new items, new spells, new locations, all with even more detail and a great new atmosphere." - Aaron Wolstencroft

"The subtle tweaks they made to the diablo2 formula that make it really nice, the stash being cross characters so I can give my rare items to characters that can actually use it, not playing tetris with my inventory to try and fit everything, fixing looting so it's not a spamfest, the new skill system so I can a have a very customised character but not being punished if I put the wrong skills into my skill tree, and not having to have tomes of town portal or tombs of identity any more." - Seth Laster

"The mini events. I've played through the beta tons of times, and I've randomly come across a jar that when opened sends out hundreds of enemies, a crazy man willing to kill over a tome he refuses to give up, an enraged spirit who refuses to lie in peace. Events like these are randomly inserted into the game, and you have no clue what your next play through will be like." - Ian Beecy

"I quite enjoy the destructible environments. One part in particular was a gunfight in a graveyard with my Demon Hunter. Volleying arrows at zombies, shooting tombstones and watching chunks of stone fly everywhere. Nice touch." - Joe

"The Story. Some books you acquire can also detail what happened to the people from Diablo 2." - John Nguyen

"My most favorite part of the game is the removal of the need to spam potions in the game. That was really annoying in Diablo II. Now that I only need to run around to pick up health orbs, I can once again focus on beating the brains out of my enemies with a wide variety of ways." - WoWDeathknight

"When comparing to Diablo 2 they eliminated SO much of the unnecessary annoyances such as; town and identify scrolls or racing for gear in fear that a team mate might take it. They have added some great things as well, an ability to choose the quest you want to play, a shared stash..., a great crafting system (you can create some really great gear through it, even in the beta), achievements, and making gold relevant (at least it is for now and I think the crafting system will keep gold relevant)." - theuglystick

"The physics. Although highly exaggerated it is still very funny to send enemies flying especially as a Barbar." - .swt

"The environments, returning characters and so far, the storyline. The Diablo universe is great and fleshing it out correctly is critical in this game. A lot of people bagged them for a 3rd game return to Tristram, but is very fleeting and ties in the story arc nicely. The easter eggs around too helped to bring on a nice bit of nostalgia (Griswolds etc)." - Andrew Morrow

What do you like least about it?

"Battlenet 2.0. The chat channels are severely lacking and games are joined by quest. This leads to a disconnected community, the small chat window in game has very few people talking and when they do it's quickly over run with other in game messages. In order for the game to thrive there needs to be a desire to play with other people, some sort of camaraderie, an attitude of all of us being in it together. At the moment however that is lacking and I find myself playing solo." - Joe Paltzer

"The biggest design failures revolve around the extremely annoying skill selection menu and very limited hotbar options (even in the so-called "elective" mode). For experienced gamers, the character control is lousy (especially for the ranged classes) as the player is forced to use the left mouse button to move, interact and attack. This does not work well in combination with monsters with large hit boxes. Many of the issues appear to be related to making the game compatible for console." - Astator

"Generic writing and voiceacting for player characters (feel like each class should've had a unique personality), Overused scripted spawn triggers in the environments, Auction house, Checkpoint system as opposed to full saves in single-player games." - Bonzoso

"The customization options for making a character is completely limited to whether you want to play as a male or female and then your name. No different hair styles, no markings, no nothing. Just male or female and that's it. While it is a game about loot, the Souls' Series (Demon, Dark) has significant customization for characters you never see below the armor. This fact that you cannot customize any character just seems lazy and inexcusable..." - Michael Woods